NHL: Holmgren: Players, not the coach, at root of Flyers' woes

Paul Holmgren, general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team, speaks during a media availability at their practice facility Thursday, May 10, 2012 in Voorhees, N.J. The New Jersey Devils defeated the Flyers 4-1 in their best-of-seven conference semifinals. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

VOORHEES, N.J. — If you ask the players, even they seem to have a difficult time defining their Flyers team.

Just OK? Better than advertised? Disappointing? ... Lousy? El Stinko?

Somewhere in between options three and four, probably.

“We’re not happy with the way we’re playing,” Claude Giroux said Thursday, the hangover of a 5-2 loss to the Devils still hanging thick in the air. “Now we’re back home in front of our fans and every game’s the biggest game of the season. It’s fair to say that tomorrow is a pretty big game. We have to make sure we’re focused and ready to go.”

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Ah, but with a rematch with the New Jersey Devils looming Friday night at Wells Fargo Center, haven’t the Flyers tried to motivate themselves to play up to their expectations in big games so many times before? And to too little success?

Hasn’t head coach Peter Laviolette beaten the drum on the subject of his players not staying up to speed? Haven’t they had waves of questions dealing with that matter that never seem to end?

Bottom line: The Flyers seem to have a disconnect between what they are and what they think they’re supposed to be. One thing is clear — they’re not supposed to lose four of five games against their better Eastern Conference peers when they indicated before that slide that every game should be approached as a must-win.

“We know what we’re doing wrong,” Giroux said. “We just have to stick to the plan and play like a team. ... I don’t know if it’s because we’re not focused. Everybody knows what they have to do out there. We just have to go out there and execute it.”

Among other things, they have to show that they’re not only good enough to play head coach Peter Laviolette’s system, but succeed at it.

“Whatever we do, we have to find it quick,” Laviolette said. “I do think the urgency still has to increase and the execution of what we do has got to be better. If we choke ourselves to death trying to do it, then that won’t help, either.”

Oh, so that’s it ... a choking situation?

On other matters of historical import for the Flyers, there is general agreement that what they think they are too often doesn’t match what they appear to be — not competitive enough.

If they didn’t believe that, they had the chance Thursday to hear it themselves from their bosses.

“It’s not like they’re not trying, but the game comes down to 1-on-1 battles, and if you don’t win some of those battles you’re probably going to lose (the game),” general manager Paul Holmgren said. “I guess against Buffalo, we did a better job. But against Boston we weren’t very good in those situations and certainly last night against the Devils, if there’s 100 puck battles I don’t know if we won a handful of them. That’s got to get better.”

Holmgren has not only noticed, he’s been fretting about it. He finally let everyone know that Thursday, walking into the locker room for a meeting with his players prior to practice. It was easy to guess what was on the agenda, but here’s a hint: It didn’t have much to do with all current fan calls for the head of the head coach.

“I think all the coaches have done a good job,” Holmgren said. “Right now I think our team needs to play better. We’re making a lot of mistakes and some of them are from lack of competitiveness. I think our team needs to compete better.”

Of his players, he added, “They’re the ones that are on the ice. I don’t think we can let the players off the hook here.”

At 12-15-1, this season shapes up to be a major Flyers failure, with the latest North Jersey act almost unwatchable. Holmgren stepped up his support for Laviolette, who signed a two-year contract extension last summer, and now is feeling the heat.

“I haven’t even thought about it,” Holmgren said with regard to a coaching change. “You guys keep asking these questions about the coach, it hasn’t even entered my mind. So, that’s all I’ll say on it.

“I don’t particularly like the way we’re playing right now, but I don’t blame that, necessarily, on the coach. I think the players have got to play better, got to compete harder. And they know that.”

If seven straight losses to the Devils dating to last season didn’t clue them in ... if losing nine of their last 10 to the Rangers wasn’t a strong hint ... what else has to happen for the Flyers to realize something that is so obvious to even their management architect?

Firing the head coach is almost like a natural order of things when the guy has been behind the same bench for more than three seasons. Especially a bench supporting a team playing somewhere between disappointing and lousy.

Do they really think they’re going to go before him?

“Sometimes, I don’t know what players think,” Holmgren said with half a smile. “They should be thinking about doing their jobs, more than anything. Right now, we’re in a situation where a lot of our players aren’t doing their jobs to the best of their ability. And they need to get better.”